You wouldn't think that the old saw, "Good help is hard to find," had anything left to it, what with last week's unemployment report out of the U.S. Department of Labor showing unemployment in America is still 6.3%. The fact that hourly wages in America grew a measly 1.9% over the past 12 months tends to suggest there's little slack in the jobs market, too.

(After all, if it was hard to find good help, wouldn't it stand to reason that employers would be paying through the nose to attract workers?)

In one industry, they may have to: trucking.

Help wanted

America as a whole may be slogging through 6.3% unemployment these days, but according to industry analyst FTR Transportation Intelligence, there's currently a 4.3% "driver shortage" in the trucking industry today  a negative unemployment rate.

Bloomberg Intelligence reports that there are currently 235,600 unfilled trucking jobs across the country, which is 43.4% more job openings than at this time, last year. FTR predicts that this number will increase by a further 61.4% before finally peaking at the end of 2016, blaming new federal regulations that went into effect last summer that restrict the amount of time that driver's can sit behind the wheel. The new rules require that drivers take 34 hours off between work weeks, including two full nights of rest, and cannot work more than 70 hours in any given week.

The new rules require that drivers take 34 hours off between work weeks, including two full nights of rest, and cannot work more than 70 hours in any given week.

I have to agree with these rules, especially since I share the roads with trucks. I'm exhausted after working 40 (hard) hours a week. I can't imagine being surrounded by idiot car drivers and being responsible for a large, powerful machine for almost twice that much time.

I suspect that part of the shortage isn't just due to these new rules, though. I suspect that a lot of it is that people have made fun of truckers to the point that "truck driver" is the punch line to a lot of jokes. Combine that with the hours and being away from your family, and it's not hard to understand the shortage.

7
posted on 05/11/2014 7:28:59 PM PDT
by Hardastarboard
(Please excuse the potholes in this tagline. Social programs have to take priority in our funding.)

Truck drivers aren’t covered by minimum wage. The feds keep tightening the screws when there isn’t justification. If they want to improve the industry the need to come down hard on shippers and receivers that beyond a reasonable time essentially steal drivers’ hours by forcing them to wait to unload or load .

Meat packing paid more 30 years ago than it does now. Taken over by Mexicans and other Third Worlders. No doubt the same is intended for trucking. Lower the wages enough so no one wants the job, then turn it over to illegal/legal immigrants.

Not to mention the 10 gabillion tickets you have to deal with from local cops. A friend of mine drives, says anytime he picks up or delivers he gets a ticket. Cops are treated like collection agencies today, especially in places like the liberal bastion of hell New York city where I unfortunately grew up and escaped from a few years ago. A friend of mine joined the NYPD and quit after 2 years because he said he did nothing else but give out tickets, and if he lost a ticket case in court they would dock him vacation days. Lot of illegals and welfare breeding cows to support, so let’s get those cops focusing on the real important issues: Collecting money!

gross or net? that's half the problem with that trucking. the other half is the practical miles per year year you can legally log (like other commentator s elude to when they talk about hours of service.). Hours of service. inspections. are you crossing the border?

No....just do net income after fuel, maintenance, insurance, fees, capital, etc. over the road vs superload? I know guys who make 200k, and I've seen how owner-operators live, and it's not the same.

“Meat packing paid more 30 years ago than it does now. Taken over by Mexicans and other Third Worlders. No doubt the same is intended for trucking. Lower the wages enough so no one wants the job, then turn it over to illegal/legal immigrants.’

A few years ago I was in a packing house in Nebraska (business related) and the everything on the bulletin boards were tri-lingual...English, Spanish, Viet Namese. And I suspect that only the supervisors could read the English.

16
posted on 05/11/2014 7:48:50 PM PDT
by GGpaX4DumpedTea
(I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders)

Truck drivers are no different overall than any other profession. Some are at the high end that transport something that is valued at 10M and some are hauling gravel.
If the guy dumps the gravel it’s cleared with a front loader. If the guy drops the 10M load of specialized equipment it might take another year to manufacture the replacement.
Professional vs. employed as.

Truth be told, there is way too much snobbery towards trucking. All You have to do is stick in a set of music or whatever and make sure you are doing your job. It sounds like the ideal job for someone who wants to travel and end up seeing the country and then getting more then enough time off. It would also end up having a good way to fit in plenty of partying.

22
posted on 05/11/2014 8:09:15 PM PDT
by CorporateStepsister
(I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)

The main “Help Wanted” in the United Staes of America, is to help all politicians running for office in November to CONVINCINGLY defeat all Democrats who have voted for any and all of B. Hussein’s Laws and Regulations - - - - .

Until then, the Obama Depression will continue to spread like the malignant cancer that our sorry Doormat Republicans in the House have so cowardly and willingly permitted.

There are a ton more jobs amiable out there. The unemployment rate should be zero by all the “help wanted” signs I see. I think people are enjoying the monthly check right now. Not sure what the ones who lost their bennies are doing...they should be applying for some of these jobs advertised.

30
posted on 05/11/2014 8:24:03 PM PDT
by napscoordinator
(Governor Scott Walker 2016 for the future of the country!)

How do you propose to get the shippers and receivers to not take advantage of drivers? The clock doesn’t necessarily stop on the HOS while the driver waits. That means he isn’t getting miles which is how most drivers are paid. They are not paid by the hour.

I drove for a while. The driving was the easy part. The never ending paperwork and hunting for permits for every state, was the hard part.
I saw the writing on the wall once they started allowing Mexican truckers enter the US. It won’t be long before English speaking truckers are but a distant memory.
It’s a real shame because truckers are salt of the Earth type people.

I'm not sure I agree with the term "high paying" for most of the hundreds of thousands of truck-driving job openings in this country.

The biggest problem is that long-haul truck driving is a job where the compensation is usually based on mileage, not time -- so a driver is paid a fixed rate for a route regardless of how long it takes to deliver the load. Between increasing congestion and increasingly onerous Federal hours of service rules, the actual compensation for long-haul truckers has declined over time even if the per-mile rates have gotten higher.

35
posted on 05/11/2014 9:07:26 PM PDT
by Alberta's Child
("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")

Exactly. One of the problems drivers face is that the time they spend at a shipper/receiver is considered on-duty time, and since they are paid by the mile it is uncompensated work time for the driver.

36
posted on 05/11/2014 9:09:15 PM PDT
by Alberta's Child
("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")

All You have to do is stick in a set of music or whatever and make sure you are doing your job.

Nope, you're on the hook for making sure the load is put on there correctly; your hour-plus waits at places like the Oakland Port are on your own time because you're paid by the mile; breakdowns, accidents, and bad traffic are all likewise on your own time; paperwork before during and after; waiting at scales; that's just what comes to mind immediately.

Not to mention especially up in the north east you are very limited as to the legal routes you can take. Weekend lay overs in Possum Flats with no trucker friendly facilities is always a riot.

Would any sane person sleep in the sleeper in NYC or Anycity New Jersey? The thrill of pulling onto a lot you just drove hard for 12 hours to pick up a promised to you load and route you home for the weekend passes you going out the gate. Then you discover the dispatchers who didn't talk to each other have left you sitting there from Friday till Monday when the companies production line starts back up and maybe you get a load out by noon headed 2000 miles from your home.

I drove about 8 months and quit. I took a job at just $1 over minimum wage working maintenance in a nursing home. I made much more money, was home every night, and had minimal stress.

40
posted on 05/11/2014 9:59:16 PM PDT
by cva66snipe
((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))

Operating Costs have definitely squeezed a number of truckers but the demand is certainly there. Some people also say it’s one of the more dangerous jobs out there. Line Hauling Petro probably gives it that reputation.

Operating Costs have definitely squeezed a number of truckers but the demand is certainly there. Some people also say its one of the more dangerous jobs out there.

I think lumberjack is the most dangerous job and truck driver is second. Many people consider police officer to be dangerous, but it isn't in the top ten. But when they are seriously injured or killed on the job it is usually from a traffic accident.

42
posted on 05/12/2014 12:16:04 AM PDT
by Moonman62
(The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)

How can a job be "High Paying" when the net income from said job decreases from year to year, and in many cases said job results in a continuous net loss.

If the job were really "High Paying", driving schools wouldn't have to lie to get people into their schools, companies wouldn't have to lie to get drivers to drive, and drivers wouldn't be quitting by the truckload every day.

I understand how drivers are paid. When markets are allowed to function, problems are resolved. What about doctors’ waiting rooms. I don’t get paid for waiting. Should I demand regulations and more bureaucrats so I can have more regulation to make me “happy” (it won’t make any difference in waiting times)?

44
posted on 05/12/2014 6:18:53 AM PDT
by achilles2000
("I'll agree to save the whales as long as we can deport the liberals")

I don’t get it either. How can the govt say that unemployment is down, but keep extending unemployment benefits. Total contradiction within the same sentence, yet nobody ever challenges them on it. The perfect catch 22 if I ever saw one.

I get how it is calculated, but challenging it:

take out all the younger than 18 and the over 65 crowd. Then take out all the folks who have given up. The other contradictory statement is that you have to show that you are trying to get a job to continue to receive benefits.

47
posted on 05/12/2014 7:09:18 AM PDT
by Cyclone59
(Where are we going, and what's with the handbasket?)

I can tell from your post that you are sincere and concerned, but I can’t provide a primer on microeconomics here. When market forces are allowed to work, they always work. They don’t create utopia, but they produce a hugely better result everywhere at all times than bureaucrats. In my relatively free state just about anybody with a CDL can make $80k-$120k hauling drill pipe, etc. In fact, a family friend just started doing exactly that after years of hauling for a freight forwarder.

There are also lots of other kinds of unfilled jobs in the O & G industry that require little or no experience that pay very, very well. Markets are still working partially in the O & G industry, and the results are far better than in more heavily regulated industries.

48
posted on 05/12/2014 7:39:51 AM PDT
by achilles2000
("I'll agree to save the whales as long as we can deport the liberals")

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